When Google Analytics Is Wrong and How You Can Fix It

When Google Analytics Is Wrong and How You Can Fix It

I am sure that all of you have, well maybe some of you may not, so run off now and get that sorted and then come back.

Google Analytics is the go-to resource for keeping tabs on your website traffic, what people look at, how they move around your site and how they go there.

So we need to know that the information we are looking at in our data is correct. Now before you roll your eyes because Google Analytics is not really a very appealing topic, as business owners we know we need to be keeping tabs on our web traffic data, just like we do all other metrics in our business.

So are you 100% confident that what Google is telling you is your website traffic, actually is your website traffic?

A new client recently came to me because they were worried that their web traffic inside Google was incorrect. They have a large member based site, and they sell advertising slots within their site. The problem was that over the last six months, the data relating to ad impressions inside the ad tool they used did not match up with the data inside Google Analytics.

In fact, it was widely different to their ad impression data.

Google Analytics had inflated results, and they did not know where to start looking nor did they fully understand how that was possible. This was critical for them to resolve as they were about to enter into new contracts with their advertisers and needed to be 100% across the data they were presenting them with.

All analytics tools track data slightly differently. Whilst Google Analytics is the most widespread tool, there are other tools, and each of them treats activity on your website slightly differently resulting in anomalies in data. However, the issue with my new client was more than a few anomalies. It actually was a large difference.

This difference was bot traffic.

It turns out that they did not realise that you can tell Google to stop the bots (not stop the boats, Tony) and they also didn’t realise how you can scan for bot traffic.

How to get Google Analytics to turn off the bots.

This is a simple process when you know how, but unfortunately, many business owners don’t realise they can do this, or how to do it. It is also unfortunate that this client’s web developer also did not know they needed to do this.

Leanne O'Sullivan is a Digital Sherpa and Founder of Summit School with Leanne O and Big Blue Digital. For the last 20 years, Leanne has worked with business owners and their teams to create sustainable, enjoyable and profitable businesses.
Leanne does this by delivering digital marketing education, advocacy and training to business owners, marketers and entrepreneurs through her online Digital Marketing Education portal, enabling them to understand and develop their own digital strategy.